The red-chinned lorikeet (''Vini rubrigularis'') is a species of

parrot Parrots, also known as psittacines (), are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes (), found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittacoide ...

in the family

Psittaculidae Psittaculidae is a family containing Old World parrots. It consists of five subfamilies: Agapornithinae, Loriinae, Platycercinae, Psittacellinae and Psittaculinae. This family has been accepted into ''The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World' ...

. It is native to New Britain, New Ireland, New Hannover and

Karkar Island Karkar Island is an oval-shaped volcanic island located in the Bismarck Sea, about 30 kilometres off the north coast of mainland Papua New Guinea in Madang Province, from which it is separated by the Isumrud Strait. The island is about 25&nb ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical moist

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial ...

Taxonomy

This species was formerly assigned to the genus ''

Charmosyna ''Charmosyna'' is a genus of parrots in the family Psittaculidae. Taxonomy ''Charmosyna'' contains the following three species: * Josephine's lorikeet (''Charmosyna josefinae'') * Papuan lorikeet (''Charmosyna papou'') * Stella's lorikeet (''C ...

''. It was moved to the genus '' Vini'' based on a molecular phylogenetic study of the lorikeets published in 2020. The species was originally described as ''Trichoglossus'' ''rubrigularis'' by

Philip Sclater Philip Lutley Sclater (4 November 1829 – 27 June 1913) was an England, English lawyer and zoologist. In zoology, he was an expert ornithologist, and identified the main zoogeographic regions of the world. He was Secretary of the Zoological ...

in 1881. The generic name ''Vini'' is from the Tahitian name for the resident lorikeets. The specific epithet ''rubrigularis'' is from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''ruber'', meaning red, and the

Modern Latin New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy a ...

''gularis'', meaning throated. Alternative names for the species include red-chinned lory. The species is generally recognised as

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

. However, some authorities split populations from Karkar Island as a distinct subspecies, ''V. r. krakari''.

References

red-chinned lorikeet Birds of the Bismarck Archipelago red-chinned lorikeet red-chinned lorikeet Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN {{parrot-stub